Probability density functions (PDFs) of a normalised column density for 13 star-forming clouds in the study. The error bars show the uncertainties. Solid lines show the fits of lognormal functions to the distributions around the peak, typically over the range . The dispersion of the fitted function is shown in the panels. For some clouds, no reasonable fit was achieved over any A_V range. For those clouds, we show for a reference a function approximating the shape using a dotted line. The x-axis on top of the panels shows the extinction scale in magnitudes.

Same as Fig. 4, but for clouds we classify as clouds not containing active star formation.

Same as Fig. 4, but for clouds at varying distances of 250-700 pc. The PDFs are smoothed to the common physical resolution of 0.6 pc. For Cepheus, two equally good fits are shown.